UN General Assembly.

On 15 December 1994 the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/49/75K.^[10] This asked the ICJ urgently to render its advisory opinion on the following question:

Is the threat or use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances permitted under international law?

The resolution, submitted to the Court on 19 December 1994, was adopted by 78 states voting in favour, 43 against, 38 abstaining and 26 not voting.^[11]

The General Assembly had considered asking a similar question in the autumn of 1993, at the instigation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which ultimately did not that year push its request.^{[citation needed]} NAM was more willing the following year, in the face of written statements submitted in the WHO proceedings from a number of nuclear-weapon states indicating strong views to the effect that the WHO lacked competence in the matter. The Court subsequently fixed 20 June 1995 as the filing date for written statements.

Altogether forty-two states participated in the written phase of the pleadings, the largest number ever to join in proceedings before the Court.^{[citation needed]} Of the five declared nuclear weapon states only the People’s Republic of China did not participate. Of the three “threshold” nuclear-weapon states only India participated. Many of the participants were developing states which had not previously contributed to proceedings before the ICJ, a reflection perhaps of the unparalleled interest in this matter and the growing willingness of developing states to engage in international judicial proceedings in the “post-colonial” period.^{[citation needed]}

Oral hearings were held from 30 October to 15 November 1995. Twenty-two states participated:Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Iran, Italy,Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, San Marino, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Costa Rica, United Kingdom,United States, Zimbabwe; as did the WHO.^{[citation needed]} The secretariat of the UN did not appear, but filed with the Court a dossier explaining the history of resolution 49/75K. Each state was allocated 90 minutes to make its statement. On 8 July 1996, nearly eight months after the close of the oral phase, the ICJ rendered its Opinion.